This invention relates to methods of controlling communication or other systems and in particular to a method of establishing a process using software agent control.
The present invention is an improvement and relates to earlier inventions described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/257,917 filed Jun. 10, 1994 and patented Jun. 10, 1997 under U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,494, invented by Deborah Pinard et al and Ser. No. 08/367,821 filed Jan. 3, 1995 invented by Thomas Gray, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,396 issued Sep. 1, 1998, which are incorporated herein by reference.
In an embodiment of the present invention, software objects for operating resources are stored in a random access memory (RAM), in a resource area of a functional process for carrying out the process, which resources are identified during a blackboard bidding process by service agents which have pointers to resource agents controlling the resources.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method of abstractly and recursively defining a functional service utilizing a process agent is comprised of (a) storing a library of first software programs for operation of system resources, (b) storing a second software program for operation of a service agent which provides said functional service, and which includes pointers to associated ones of the first software programs which are controlled by the service agent, (c) storing a software program for assembling a general process to provide the functional service, including the steps of: (i) requesting the usage right for system resources controlled by the service agent required by the general process, (ii) sending a set of pointers to system resources required for the general process from the service agent to the software program for invoking the general process, and (iii) storing the set of pointers sent from the service agent in association with the software program for operating the general process to provide the functional service on demand, and (d) adding to the functional service the library by adding the set of stored pointers sent from the service agent as a first software program, and providing a pointer to the first software program.